Meeting documents
Venue: The Paralympic Room - AVDC. View directions
Contact: Charlotte Gordon; Email: cgordon@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk;
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To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 20 January 2016 attached as an appendix. Minutes: RESOLVED –
That the minutes of the meeting held on 20 January, 2016, be approved as a correct record. |
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Broadband Provision in the Vale PDF 69 KB To consider the information attached.
Contact Officer: Tracey Aldworth 01296 585003 Minutes: In December 2014 the Council had committed £1.536m of New Homes Bonus funding to support the rollout of broadband across the district. £200,000 of this had been used to run a pilot project and to create Aylesbury Vale Broadband (AVB) to provide a service to the North Marston and Granborough area.
AVB was 95% owned by AVDC and 5% owned by Ironic Thought. AVB was being funded by a commercial loan from AVDC, repayable by 2022 and with an interest rate of 7.5%. The ambition set out in the original business plan was to start to make an operating profit by the end of the second year of the whole pilot network going live. The company is on track to achieve this.
The Company had been incorporated in June 2015 and the physical works had then commenced in August 2015. An update had been provided in September 2015 to the Committee, with a further update provided to this meeting. In addition to the information reported to the meeting, latest news and information about the programme could be accessed from the AVB website at www.avbroadband.co.uk.
Mr Andrew Mills (Aylesbury Vale Broadband) and Mr Navin Sankersingh (Connected Counties) attended the scrutiny meeting to present to the Committee and to answer queries from Members.
Since the last Committee report, the network had gone live in parts of the North Marston area in November 2015 and was currently being extended to Granborough. There had been a 40% take up for the areas currently served in North Marston, which was significantly higher than the take up for the Connected Counties programme for example, which was just under 20% ("take up" is the industry standard measurement for the percentage of properties using the service out of the households the network reaches). The aim was to increase this take up to the 60% set out in the business plan and increase the take up as the rollout continues.
The broadband service had been extended to the North Marston school which was allowing the school to utilise on-line resources that had previously been inaccessible. It was also reaching farming properties, some of which were up to 3kms from the centre of North Marston. A free public Wi-Fi spot was being offered around the church in North Marston and in the coming weeks free Wi-Fi access would also be provided to the village hall and shop area. This would help to encourage the use of community facilities as well as addressing the issue of mobile black spots in the village.
The AVB network was classified as an ultra-fast broadband service (i.e. delivering at least 300Mb/s), with this speed of broadband currently only available to 2% of the UK population. The broadband pricing strategy was:- · 30 MB/s up and down - £30 per month (cheapest package). · 100 MB/s - £38 per month. · 300 MB/s - £135 per month.
In addition to providing an ultra-fast fibre broadband service in rural Aylesbury Vale, AVB’s presence had also driven an additional ... view the full minutes text for item 2. |
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Enterprise Zone Update on Progress PDF 3 MB To consider the information attached.
Contact Officer: Mark Wathen (01296) 585064 Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee received a report updating Members on the arrangements for the establishment and operation of the Aylesbury Vale Enterprise Zone (AVEZ). Enterprise Zones are an important part of the Government’s programme to devolve responsibility for leadership of local growth and provide a powerful tool for areas to develop their local economy.
In the latter stages of 2015, working closely with public and private sector partners, BTVLEP had submitted an application for an Aylesbury Vale Enterprise Zone (AVEZ) with the support of AVDC, which had subsequently been accepted by central government. The award of the AVEX was a testament to the positive partnership working between AVDC, BCC, BTVLEP, Silverstone Park, Westcott Venture Park and Arla Dairies.
Businesses basing themselves on Enterprise Zones can access up to 100% business rate discount worth up to £275,000 per annum over a 5 year period. This benefit can only be offered up until March 2022, from which point the benefit will taper until the offer expires in March 2027. In addition, Enterprise Zones benefit from 100% retention of business rate growth for LEPs to reinvest in development on the Enterprise Zones (through discussion and negotiation with partners).
The LEP, landowners and Local Authority Partners in the Enterprise Zone would also continue to benefit from 100% growth of business rates retention for 25 years with 100% protection from any future reset or redistribution and as such, would sit outside the standard LA rates retention arrangements that would exist outside Enterprise Zones. Business rate growth on an Enterprise Zone would not count towards an authority's business rate baseline income and, as a result, would not be used in the calculation for local authority top ups or tariff payments. Furthermore, EZ's business rate discounts and capital allowances that were fully funded by the Government would generate business rates income that would not otherwise have arisen.
Importantly, all of the Business Rates generated on the Enterprise Zone sites would be under the control of the Enterprise Zone’s Governance Board. The District and County Councils would not automatically receive any proportion of the Business Rates generated on these sites (currently 40% to AVDC and 9% to BCC). However, it was possible to agree within the MoU and partnership agreement, that a proportion of the growth should still go to the local authorities, but this had to be negotiated and documented.
Because of this fact, the outline submission to the Government (referred to below) included the prerequisite that neither authority should financially be any worse off from the creation of these Enterprise Zones. This is particularly important when it is considered that a significant proportion of the Vale’s business rates growth over the next 2 decades might have been located within these areas. It is estimated that AVDC might have benefited by anything up to £30 million in revenue terms over that timeframe from these sites (using existing calculation methodology). Agreement of the detailed terms of the MoU and inter party agreement would therefore be vitally important.
The Aylesbury Vale ... view the full minutes text for item 3. |
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Aylesbury Vale Estates Business Plan PDF 102 KB To consider the information attached.
Contact Officer: Teresa Lane (01296) 585006 Minutes: A report, together with confidential appendices which detailed Aylesbury Vale Estates (AVE) Business Plan for 2016/2017 was presented to give the Committee an opportunity to consider it and pass any comments onto Cabinet. The Committee was reminded that, the Council and the Akeman Partnership LLP (Akeman) had set up AVE in October 2009, following a competitive dialogue procurement, to manage, improve and develop the Council’s commercial property portfolio and provide an income stream to the Council. The partnership was governed by a formal Members’ Agreement and managed by a partnership board on which the Council had 3 representatives.
Akeman had produced a draft Partnership Business Plan for AVE as part of their bid, which had been approved by the Cabinet in June 2009. The final version of the Plan formed part of the completion documentation approved in October 2009. The Board meet on a regular basis to review progress on the Business Plan and monitor performance of the Asset Manager, Akeman Asset Management LLP. The Members’ Agreement provided for AVE to prepare a new Business Plan before the end of each accounting year and for this to be circulated to the Council and Akeman for approval. The Business Plan set out AVE’s objectives for the life of the Partnership (20 years) and the annual overarching objectives for each accounting period. In particular, the Plan had to include a statement that AVE’s business would be operated with a view to producing the best risk adjusted profit obtainable and to maximise the risk adjusted rate of return to the Council and Akeman.
The Committee were advised that historically, the cycle for considering the draft Business Plan meant that it was retrospective and not aligned to the Council’s own budget setting process when any forecast distribution from AVE could be included.
A draft Business Plan for 2017/2018 would be presented in the December/January cycle to address this.
Meanwhile, the draft Business Plan submitted to the meeting identified the ‘core assets’ within the portfolio, i.e. those assets which had the greatest collective bearing on the portfolio in total, and were therefore the subject of greatest management attention, namely the estates at Rabans Lane North, Rabans Close, Edison Road, Bessemer Crescent, Stocklake, Gatehouse Way and Hale Leys Shopping Centre. These assets had their own dedicated Asset Management Strategy which was submitted to the Board for approval. During the 2012-13 financial year, AVE had purchased the Hale Leys Shopping Centre, creating a separate special purpose vehicle, Hale Leys LLP, to own and manage the centre. By value, the shopping centre made up about a quarter of the total portfolio value of AVE. A separate cashflow for the Centre was detailed at Appendix 2 to the confidential pages
The Business Plan included a range of assumptions about the future behaviour of tenants and the wider market. In order to provide Members with an improved understanding of the impact of future events on the performance of the business, two ‘cases’ were presented: a pessimistic ‘base’ case and ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |